4 Effective Steps to Creating Goals!
Happy New Year! With 2020 officially here it’s common for many to set new goals for a new year. Do you have a goal for your child? Does your child have a goal in mind for themselves, academically or socially? Do you know what your child’s teachers goal is for them? Setting goals can mean having accountability for achieving an outcome. Starting with 4 effective tools can help build those goals and reaching them.
How to you decide on the goal?
A goal is defined as “the object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.” In order to reach a goal you need to know what your ambition is or what your desired result will be. As we enter this blog post start thinking about what your goal is for your child or, better yet, come up with a goal together. This is a great way to check in with your child around what they want as well as creating a meaningful connection between their desired goal and the outcome. I started doing this with my kids when they were in grade 2. Every year it’s so interesting to hear from them what they want their goal for the year to be, we pick one for school and one for outside of school.
What’s your goal in 2020 for you child? What is their goal for 2020?
Wondering how to set up your goal as a family or on your own for you student?
Take a look at these 4 steps to setting up effective goals.
Why - Choose your why for the goal. So for example together with our middle child we discussed his reading level and how he should be at level 24 by June 2020. Our WHY is that he needs to be at least at level 24 to be able to handle grade 4 without too much frustration. Reading is not something he loves right now, but he’s beginning to understand how important it is.
How - Decide how you hope to reach the goal. For example our HOW, is by providing extra support together with the school (an intensive reading group 3 time a week for 30 minutes). This will allow him to continue to achieve the goal while receiving intensive support in reading. Does your child need some extra support in the form of tutoring? Is there an other way to support the how?
When - Pick a date by which you’ll know the goal achieved. Leaving a goal open ended makes things tricky because there is no need to ever cross the finish line. Our son’s WHEN, if you will, is June 25 2020 when the school year finishes. You don’t have to be that specific but pick a realistic date and remember that ‘Rome was not built in a day’. We’ve created a calendar with him to monitor his progress. Each week he’ll enter his level that week. This way he can see his progress and be able to visually see his success!
Together - Make sure you do this together, whether that’s with your child or with your child’s teacher/school. Part of achieving something is having a team around you to support you. Remember that the school, or learning environment your child is in, should be included. If for some reason they aren’t supportive of your goal be sure to find ways to advocate for your child’s needs. In my case we’ve explained the why to him and how we’re going to support him TOGETHER, as his parents with his teachers at school.
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Set up your goals to ensure success.
Goal setting can seem overwhelming and sometimes as though the goal line will never appear. By creating a goal together, either with your child alone or in conjunction with your child’s teacher, you’ll be well on your way to success. If you’ve never done effective goal setting then start with an easy goal, one you know will be met no problem. For example if your child struggles with organization, then perhaps setting the goal to write in their agenda 3 out of 5 days what they need for school. Then start to extend the time lines as 3 days become easy.
If you’re still not sure about setting goals take a look at a post from last year on Goal Setting. There you will find more specific ideas for setting goals with your child. Every goal is different and no two goals will look the same. Be kind to yourselves while building your goals! Good things come to those who wait.
Happy 2020!
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